Superheroes on screen

We rented Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was all right. Glad I didn't go to the theater for it.

I love superheroes, but I don't seem to care for superhero movies. Cartoons are all right, but I've never seen a live-action superhero movie that I really liked. Not even the X-Men pics. I liked the first Superman movie when I was a kid, but none of the rest. Never cared for the Batman pics. Spider-Man left me cold. And let's not even talk about the Hulk or Daredevil.

Part of this, I think, is that all these movies take place in a world in which the hero is isolated--he or she is the only super-type around. And one of the things I like about comics is the shared universe--the interactions among different heroes, the fact that they aren't alone, that the world is used to superheroes, that there's a whole superheroic subculture. The movies don't have this. I know why, of course--rights issues, movies last only a couple of hours and that's not enough time to deal well with even the title character, much less guests--and they're good reasons in movie terms. But it makes it a different world.

But I want to see the Iron Man movie. It just looks good.

I think it's the armor.